AUTO RACING: Jimmie Johnson's good, but not the greatest

There are so many fans and media that want to crown Jimmie Johnson, the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, the greatest driver of all time. There is no denying that winning six NASCAR Sprint Cup titles is an impressive feat. It certainly will get him into the NASCAR Hall of Fame or any other Hall of Fame when the time comes. With the new rules in place for the Hall of Fame he will make it a lot quicker than he once thought. However I have to agree with some of the people I respect in this business when they say there is just no way to determine anyone as the greatest driver of all time.

As most know I have been around this business a long time. I go back to 1955 when I saw my first live race. I have seen many of the greats perform. A.J. Foyt would certainly qualify as one of the greatest. He won races and championships in different types of racing. Mario Andretti won races and championships in several forms of motorsports. He is the only one to have won in Indianapolis cars, NASCAR Cup cars and Formula One.

And we could talk about Jackie Stewart and Jimmy Clark as greats. The Unsers (Al, Al Jr. and Bobby) were greats. The list goes on.

Now if you are limiting greatness to just NASCAR, then there is no way, in my mind, that anyone would top Richard Petty. He won 200 Cup races. His wins came on dirt and paved tracks. He won on tracks that NASCAR would not even consider running a Cup race on these days. He raced when the schedule was filled with many more events. Back in his prime Petty would race more than 60 times in a season.

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He raced against some of the greatest Hall of Fame talents including Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Bobby Allison, David Pearson and others. Petty raced when it was more about the skill of the driver rather than the technology of the race car.

What makes a great driver to me is not just the performance on the track but the performance off the track. As I have often said I think Richard has done for NASCAR racing what Arnold Palmer did for professional golf. Even people that are not followers of the sport know who Richard Petty is. Petty was known for sticking around after events signing autographs until everyone that wanted one of his artistic signatures got one. He is still the same. You donít see that happen today with our young racing talents. When the race is over you had better get out of the way or you will get run over as the racers make their way out of the track. And that even happens in weekly short track racing.

The problem in deciding who the greatest NASCAR race car driver is, itís the fact that the greats performed in different eras. They drove different types of race cars. There was little attention to technology at least not like it is today. The conditions were much different over the years.

Some would argue that Dale Earnhardt, ďThe IntimidatorĒ, was the greatest. He also won seven Cup titles and tallied 76 Cup victories. Who knows how many more there would have been had it not been for his death at Daytona in 2001. And he won against some great Hall of Fame talents such as Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett and others.

I cannot deny that Jimmie Johnson, ďSix TimerĒ, has had an outstanding career. He has won against todayís best including future Hall of Famers such as Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart and there will be others. Johnson will continue to win and probably will add more championships. But to me it is just not as impressive because of the fuel economy runs, the Lucky Dog, and other things that have changed the sport over the last few years.

Think about it. There is just no way, no fair way, to claim that any racer is the greatest NASCAR racer or the greatest racer. I really do not think it can be done.

With all that said though, if a gun was held to my head and I was forced to pick the greatest NASCAR racer to date, it would be Richard Petty and if I had to pick the greatest all around racer of all time it would be Mario Andretti.

If you care to debate my choices feel free to email me at Esaxton144@aol.com.

Just taking this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.